State of the Union Address: Reaction Roundup

Published by rachel on Wed, 02/13/2013 - 10:49am

President Obama laid out an ambitious agenda for his second term last night in his State of the Union speech, including immigration reform, gun control, raising the minimum wage, universal pre-school, ending the war in Afghanistan, and making it easier to vote. How effectively that agenda is carried out remains to be seen, of course, but here are some interesting takes on the speech itself from around the Web:

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post says the looming battle over the minimum wage is one that Democrats should welcome.

Interesting reaction from a group of undocumented immigrants who watched the speech.

A summary of what legislators thought about the president's promise to take executive action on climate change.

Everyone (except John Boehner) cheered 102-year-old Desiline Victor, who waited six hours to vote in Florida last November. President Obama promised to fix that, although his effort to find balance on his proposed commission may leave a little to be desired.

And, finally, can we have a little fun with Marco Rubio's response? Aside from the nervous gulping of water (and Wolf Blitzer's priceless "uh-oh!"), the substance of what he had to say could be effectively summarized as "incoherent gibberish," as blogger Steve Benen put it in a post called, "Putting the Rube in Rubio." The supposed savior of the Republican Party is just not ready for prime time.